Computers and Language
Why is language learning still one of the areas that lags behind in terms of the application of IT?
I was talking tonight to a friend who said that in his university there are still many language lecturers who think that IT has no relevance to their subject. Given the inroads it has made elsewhere and the benefits it offers the study of language, what reasons can there be for it finding so much hostility and so little acceptance by many practitioners?
Categories: General
One of the reason could be that the old academics, having grown up with dusty books, thinks that this is the only way of proper learning. However, the Internet is ushering its way through this kind of mentality, and is having a very good response from the new generation of it-bred academics. Renowned Universities, such as University College London, have added, in their Learning and Teaching Strategy statements, plans for a new way of studying a Masters Degree, which will involve, together with ordinary research, even the Internet as a source and a mean of completion the MA. This, from my point of view, is an excellent idea, for the internet, if used properly, is one of the most complete database for researching information in almost any disciplines. Yet we have to be careful, we ought not to think that we can resolve al our problems with the Internet, which should be used as a complementary source and not as the only one!
Using the net for distance learning at any level makes sense to me. You can do a number of Master's degrees that way, I believe. ;-)